How to walk off Royal Arches (aka RA rap non issue)

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Darwin

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Feb 19, 2015 - 10:58pm PT

Also what Haan said in the 3rd(?) post in the thread, which is just plain commons sense: Don't do it at night unless you've done it many/several times before.

Wade Icey

Trad climber

www.alohashirtrescue.com

Feb 20, 2015 - 12:05am PT

One would think that someone so dedicated to SAR would actually think about things before he speaks. Pathetic.

one would think the same of someone claiming to have walked the Damascus Road.

WBraun

climber

Feb 20, 2015 - 07:45am PT

I used the words: "anyone competent can do the nose rappel."

With that:

I referred to how Steve Grossman used to do the rappels down the Nose leaving Camp 4 in the morning
going to the top rappelling solo with the intent for gear booty hunting and still returning
back to camp four in the evening as an example of a competent person.

I never encourage any n00b to do such a thing although a fool could easily misinterpret and project it as such.

Cragman in that nose rappel thread had a meltdown and had to delete his off cuff comments towards the op and apologize.

Since then the poor guy has been trying so hard to frame me, good job and keep trying.

Cragman is superman and the supreme master of all things sar and safety.

Keep up the good work Cragman .....

NutAgain!

Trad climber

South Pasadena, CA

Feb 20, 2015 - 05:35pm PT

Thanks Clint. The one time I did the last pitch I unroped at the spring and free soloed the 5.2 early in my climbing career and thought it was kinda spooky. No wonder. I dropped the end of the rope down to belay my partner who was even less experienced.

Are there multiple reasonable ways to reach the rim after the slab traverse into the forest? I only topped out to the rim one time, and my experience was also spooky. I recall going straight up some wet blocky thing that ended up being steeper, slipperyer, and higher than I planned to be. Felt like I could have bought it on that part, and belayed my partner up.

Is that the part that folks call "the spring"?

the Fet

climber

Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La

Feb 21, 2015 - 03:56pm PT

Haha Nut I'm glad I'm not the only one.

That area is called the jungle. The spring is the actual spring that's at about chest height on the wall at the top of the jungle. I'm not sure but I would guess it flows the same times as similar springs in Yosemite so until approximately July.

son of stan

Boulder climber

San Jose CA

Feb 21, 2015 - 10:47pm PT

And yes walk off the R.A. Why rap off when you'll need to toss that
lead rope afterwards cause its now stretched out sh#t
that won't catch the 'big one'.

rbord

Boulder climber

atlanta

Feb 22, 2015 - 08:24am PT

Thanks kev! I've only ever walked off and enjoyed that but that was BITD. Whatever you're more personally comfortable with prolly plays a big part. Nowadays that probably includes snap chatting mid rap :-)

there is no shame in being humble.

LOL Cragman! Sorry, but that requires humility, oh self-proclaimed "lion among sheep" "men are sinners and I am amongst the greatest of these." What do your delusions tell you that you did - eat an entire class of first graders or something? Sure, humble is what you are, and praise Jesus!

Wade Icey

Trad climber

www.alohashirtrescue.com

Feb 22, 2015 - 09:18am PT

All hail the lion king. Hallelujah!!!111666

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Feb 22, 2015 - 11:05am PT

Tami, ya hoser, why not sit on the pizza deck and take a picture of NDG on
yer phone so you can pull it out of yer pocket to consult on yer way down
in the dark? OK, ya might have to walk over to Happy Isles, or someplace,
to take the pic. Better yet you could do it all nerdy like and do some sorta
GPS thang. My GPS is accurate enough to show me which room of my house I'm
in when I forget so it should be able to get you down NDG.

allanc

climber

Mar 11, 2015 - 11:32pm PT

I saw that anchor that D2R2 mentioned while sitting at the top of the 5.8 start pitch. It's on a small flat ledge to your left, and you might have to poke around the manzanita to find it. You'd never see it if you were climbing the chimney start.

BTW, haven't used it, but there are some nice bivy spots under some big boulders back in the woods near where you start the sandy descent into the gully from the overlook above the column.

I've done the standard descent a few times, and also tried to find Alt-A, doing something that was mostly traversing along a trail from that same overlook above the column (go left at the big rock there at the start of the sandy slope descent, past the bivy spots and then follow cairns to traverse). Not recommended--lots of dirt and a dirt shower rap at the end onto the trail.

Question is--
Years ago, when I did it first, a guide that we ran into with his clients at the top of the route showed us the route they take with clients. I seemed to remember it being a complete walk with nothing exposed and a minor tree climb down at the end (not the tree climb on the standard descent). Anyone have any ideas what that was? I'm considering taking my 11yo daughter (who just got her first 12a at the gym), and a couple of the spots on the standard descent traverse would be exposed for her.

I honestly can't figure out how people can get down so quickly. I've
gotten up in 2.5 hours with no simulclimbing or soloing, but I swear it's
probably taken me 3 hours down each time. (I try to avoid rappelling, there is far too much chance you'll run into someone halfway down tied up in their rope like a fly stuck in a spiders web, or with their hair/beard/jacket/nosering irreverseably stuck in their belay device.)

We saw a bear crank up the rock near those last 2 bolts in the gully. It ran across the slab 8' from us without even a glance at us.

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Mar 12, 2015 - 07:09am PT

I've rappelled thousands of times but much prefer downclimbing/hiking when the option is available and not a horror show.

hobo_dan

Social climber

Minnesota

Mar 13, 2015 - 04:17pm PT

Been about 30 years, but I thought I remembered going down a bit too early into the first gully and I thought there was a sign that said something like "1000 foot cliff ahead- Abandon all hope- ye who enter here" or something to that affect. Well, the memory's the second thing to go

ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber

extraordinaire

Mar 14, 2015 - 11:32pm PT

I've heard of top-out artists just cruising it down Snow Creek trail.

mucci

Trad climber

The pitch of Bagalaar above you

Mar 15, 2015 - 08:49am PT

The speed record for RA was achieved by down climbing the route.

Rankin

Social climber

Greensboro, North Carolina

Mar 22, 2015 - 09:23am PT

At 21 yo I had been in the Valley for a few weeks when I soloed RA onsight. Still hadn't figured out that whole hand jamming thing and friction slabs were pretty foreign as well. But given that it's an easy climb I survived, although it did get a bit intense on the final friction traverse which was wet. When I got through it I punched my fist and screamed like I had just hit a last-second three to win the game and then I thought, "Oh sh#t, now I gotta find that gully."

I remember being surprised at how much distance I had to travel to get over to the top of the Column, and I was really thirsty. A lot of white rock up there and it was just so bright.

I was a Southern kid without almost no rock savvy in the Valley but I was able to sniff out the NGD without issue. At one point I thought about going down but my instincts told me that there was steep cliff below and I went a little further. Then once I found it everything went fine. I passed a bolt or two, which I assumed were used by people carrying heavy loads.

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Mar 22, 2015 - 03:26pm PT

The Old Wisdom in the '70's was don't go down North Dome Gully in the dark your first time. Which has been said on this thread.

So in the mid 70's (no one would dream of bolting in a rap route then) we got to the top of the Jungle at dusk. I'd had to lead every pitch on the longest climb I'd done. Also being the end of May back when Cali had real winter, the route was very wet in places. We were SLOW (the Rotten Log was fun for me to lead but terrified my partner).

The sandy, grotty, unprotected 5.4 traverse was spooky even for the follower but the route from the Jungle, up past the spring and the 5.2 was pretty easy and we had no trouble getting to the start of NDG except the sun was gone and in May it was getting DARK.

We had just made our first mistake of the day: above Washington Column there are great bivvy boulders with huge overhangs. We should have stayed there. It would have been a grand (if cold) night. We could have started a fire.

We were now on a rather steep sandy slope beyond the notch. We stuck our feet in a manzanita bush to keep us from sliding down, laid our rope on the ground, put on our wind shirts (our only extra clothing), spooned, and settled in for the night. (she was my g/f so spooning was OK). It was a LONG, restless, COLD night. We had filled a water bottle at the spring and had some scraps of food left.
At dawn the route across to the descent gully was obvious. I may have belayed her over one section. The far side descent was obvious. It's a steep brushy rib. It was also quite safe (even my g/f who really didn't like exposure was OK). I think I gave her a belay where it runs out onto the final slabs.

2nd time down I had to lead every pitch again but we made good time anyway. He also didn't like exposure but we had no trouble finding the route to/down NDG and arrived on the ground with daylight to spare. We still had the Rotten Log, it was mid summer and the route was nearly dry. It was also before the rap route. A fine day's outing.

3d time two years ago, with a strong young lad, we got a late start (dumb), the ramp pitches above Pitch 1 were RUSHING with water and had to be bypassed. We were pretty late to the first pitch off the ramps. This was also in spring (short days).
On one of his leads he got way off route and did the first 60 feet of the Cobra before realizing his error. Getting this sorted took some time. The pitch leading up from the end of the long ledge traverse was really wet and took me several tries.
When we got to the rap bolts the sun was approaching the horizon. OK, time to rap (my first time). We had brought a 2nd rope and headlamps just in case.

kev's sketch on page 1 is excellent.
Clint's Red Route on page 1 is what I took both times down. in DAYLIGHT: Easy to follow and safe.
If you get benighted on top, bivvy at the big boulders.

So here's the rap beta according to High Traverse:
The '70's mantra still holds: don't take NDG your first time in the dark.

1- Given good weather and enough daylight I'd rather take NDG. It's a great adventure.
2- Clint's rap route topo on page 2 of this thread is excellent
3- take two ropes if you think you might need to rap. Take headlamps.
4- with two ropes, you can double all the raps.
5- For raps 13, 14, and 15 you might want to coil 1 and rap on 1. The rope drag there sucks.
6 - Some of the rap stations are hard to find even at dusk. Especially Clint's #6, 7 and 8.
7- Also #15, it's further down than you might think. It took us some hunting to find it in the dark.
8- I suggest rapping 15 - 17 in one go. The 5.2 down climb is nasty, especially in the dark.
9 - #17 and 21 are HARD to find in the dark. You might want to stay on the rope while finding #17
10- the "3d" class down from #19 when the gully is a raging river is tricky. In the dark, we belayed it.
11- The rap took us about 4 hours. I'm very deliberate about setting up rap stations on steep walls in the dark even with headlamps. In daylight I'd guess it's 3 hours.
12- the only rope retrieval problem with two ropes was the pull #15 down to #17

AANM had a report a few years ago of a party getting stuck on the rap route when they were benighted pretty high up and couldn't find the next rap station. YOSAR helped them down the next day.

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

Nothing creative to say

Mar 30, 2015 - 01:52pm PT

The walk off to NDG is a pain, but it does give you some great views...

Ihateplastic

Trad climber

It ain't El Cap, Oregon

Mar 30, 2015 - 04:04pm PT

As a pubescent 14 year old I climbed the SFWC with Mark Blanchard who was one day younger than I. We did the route WITHOUT a topo; just Roper Green. Once on top we wandered over to the descent area and went down. WITHOUT a topo... WITHOUT hand-holding... and WITHOUT incident. Red Karrimor haulbag and too much gear.

Remember the days of adventure first?